<U.S. Senate Approves Dramatic Increase for Education Funds for California's Disadvantaged Students

U.S. Senate Approves Dramatic Increase for Education Funds for California's Disadvantaged Students
December 20, 2001

Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced that the Senate has approved a $300 million increase in the amount of federal funds that California receives for the education of the state's poor children.

The funding, added to the Title I program that provides education assistance for disadvantaged children, was approved as part of the Fiscal Year 2002 Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations legislation. The Title I program is the largest federal elementary-secondary program and is a targeted formula based on the number of poor children in each school district.

"Federal education funds should go where our nation's poor children are and I am delighted that this bill reflects that principle, Senator Feinstein. "Over the past three years, California has lost over $120 million in Title I funds because of the so called 'hold harmless' provision. This legislation ensures that California will receive the funds it deserves according to the number of poor children in the state."

For the past three years, the annual Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill included a so called "hold harmless" provision that froze the amount of Title I funds to smaller states despite the growth or loss of poor children. Due to this provision, 775,000 students in California over the last three years were not served adequately.

The legislation also includes an amendment requested by Senator Feinstein for a census update requirement for Title I funds in order to accurately count for the number of poor children. This requirement is important to make sure that funds follow the child and that any changes in true number of poor children are reflected in the disbursement of education funds.

California will receive $1.45 billion in FY 2002 in Title I funds while it received $1.15 billion in FY 2001. This represents a 26 percent increase over last year. The national average increase was 21% in Title I grants.

# # #